Institute for Justice

October 2016, Volume 25, Issue 5

Being an IJ client can be hard. Litigation is time consuming, government officials can be oppressive and the feeling of having your business or your home hanging in the balance is a constant source of stress. Longtime IJ client Charlie Birnbaum, the Atlantic City piano tuner who has frequently been featured in the pages of…

Beer connoisseurs and fans of liberty will want to say “cheers” to IJ’s latest economic liberty victory. IJ scored a landmark victory on behalf of eyebrow threaders in 2015 at the Texas Supreme Court. Building on that, IJ has delivered another win for economic liberty in the Lone Star State—this time on behalf of craft…

Among IJ’s litigation goals is to create a world in which all entrepreneurs—not just our clients—can realize their vision free from unreasonable government interference. An excellent example of this is our bone marrow case. Longtime readers of Liberty & Law will recall that in 2011 IJ won a landmark victory when the 9th U.S. Circuit…

For 25 years, IJ has helped change the world. From opening taxi markets across the nation to defending school choice programs from attack; from saving more than 16,000 properties from eminent domain abuse to freeing political speech participation, we set the standard in all areas of our work. In mid-September, more than 250 IJ Partners…

As we celebrate two and a half decades of litigating for liberty, we reflect on the impact of the Institute for Justice’s first 25 years, and we look ahead to the next 25 years and beyond—to continuing a legacy that has left each community where IJ has been more free. We now have an opportunity…

Why does the government get in the way of letting entrepreneurs thrive? To answer this question and more, IJ has launched “IJ Asks Why.” This new initiative aims to encourage entrepreneurs, government officials and others to question the underlying justification for laws that stand between entrepreneurs and their ability to fulfill their American Dream. Through…

No one should be forced to quit their job and spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars learning things that have nothing to do with their job. But that is exactly what the Louisiana Board of Cosmetology wants eyebrow threaders to do. Eyebrow threading is an all-natural technique that uses a single strand of…

Can the government force you to take a class before you are allowed to exercise your First Amendment rights? If the answer seems obvious, you might be surprised to learn that Alabama law requires exactly that for a huge range of people who want to do nothing more than pick up the phone and call…

Readers of Liberty & Law are aware of IJ’s recent legislative victories eliminating onerous occupational licenses for hair braiders in Iowa and Kentucky. But they may not realize that these are just two of the five states that have ended licensing for braiders this year—and two of the nine that have done so since we…

Good news out of the Golden State! As this issue went to print, SB 443—a significant overhaul of California’s forfeiture laws—will have become law. The Golden State now provides a powerful model for reforming state forfeiture laws, following IJ’s success in helping enact forfeiture reform this year in Florida, Maryland, Nebraska and New Hampshire. Civil…